The Returning
by Shinigami-huntress
Summary: The Other Mother returns and wants revenge. But she doesn't want Coraline...


**Ok, so I know this was on the poll that I have posted, but I really wanted to get the first chapter up. Any further updating will be done after I close the poll. I will not be updating past the first chapter of anything until after the pole is closed. So, expect massive cliffhangers on everything. And I do mean everything. I might not even make the chapters very long. It all depends on how many people actually vote on my poll. Updating will NOT happen until I get feedback. So read and enjoy.**

All had been very quiet since Coraline and Wybie had thrown the key and the Other Mother's hand down the well. Lately Coraline's dreams had been filled with darkness and there was always water, endless water. She couldn't figure out why water would frighten her as much as it did. Every now and then she thought she heard nails scratching at the little door that leads to the Other World.

Coraline woke early this morning. Something had woke her up. In her room was the cat. Her room had not changed much. She had got to paint the walls bright pink, like her room in the Other World. She still had the boring little bed that had no head board and no dragonflies hanging from it. She still had her boring sheets and plain wood floor. It wouldn't kill her parents to get her a pretty rug to go in the middle of her room. He flicked his tail, sighed at her and ran out of her room. She sprung out of bed and ran down to the room where she had traveled to the Other World. The cat was sitting on by the door. Coraline knelt down to examine what was bothering the cat. Her short blue hair fell into her face and the cat batted at it. The door had a hole in it; not a large hole, just big enough to fit a hand through. "Oh no!" Coraline exclaimed. "How did this happen? What exactly happened? Did the Other Mother get out or did the hand somehow get back to her?" Coraline asked the cat. The cat stared at her with huge sapphire eyes. He nodded at her. "We have to tell Wybie!" She exclaimed. She leapt to her feet and jogged back to her room.

She glanced at her laundry pile; everything wearable was in the dirty laundry. All that she had left to wear was her ugly school uniform. The grey dress was very displeasing to her. She silently slipped the revolting thing on. _Mom needs to do laundry or get me new clothes._ Coraline thought to herself. Since she had got back from the Other World, her mother had been a bit nicer to her. Now months later her mother was back to ignoring her again. She had saved their lives and this is how she is repaid? By being ignored and put to work all the time. Coraline shuddered and ran out of the apartment and into the wilderness. There were odd shaped tracks leading to her house. Five little holes was the entire track. _That can't be good._ Coraline ran past the trees towards the bottom-less well. The top had a matching hole to the one in the door at her home. _Definitely good. _Coraline ripped the cover off the well and threw it to the side. She peered down the well and saw nothing.

"Now, Coraline, you're just being paranoid. There is no was that she could have survived. No way at all." Coraline said to herself. She then looked over at the cover. Pinned to the top was her blue blanket and a note. She ripped the note off. It read:

Coraline,

I miss you so very much. How could you simply think that I would just go away after this time? I will have your eyes this time. Yours, or another's, it makes no difference to me. An eye is an eye. But, yours are beautiful.

Coraline's flesh began to freeze on her. _The Other Mother is still alive. No, this is a trick from someone at school. It has to be. She can't be alive._ Coraline grabbed her blanket and kicked the cover back onto the well. "You should be nicer to that well cover." A voice said.

"Hello, why were you born." Coraline taunted. Wybie was standing next to her with his head turned slightly. He smiled at her as she walked away.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I am trying to find out who it is that is pulling this practical joke on me. The first person that comes to mind is you. Did you do it?" She accused.

"Do what?" He asked confused. She threw the note at him. He quickly read it and ran off.

"So, much for that idea." She said slapping her head. She walked back to the hotel and went to her room. The cat was sitting in her window sill with a key in his mouth. She walked over to him and he gave the key to her. "What do I need a key for?" She asked without looking at the key. She then looked down and saw that it was the button key that opens the door to the Other World. "This isn't a joke, is it?" She asked the cat. He nodded. "Who is it that she wants if she can't have me?" The cat stared at her with wide eyes and vanished. "You're a lot of help."

Hours passed and Coraline sat on her bed looking at her boring ceiling. The cat had not returned and Wybie had not come over. Her parents had left for the day and she was free to do whatever she wanted to. But, she really wanted to just know that the Other Mother wasn't going to return and try to take her eyes. She had been willing, once, to stay with the Other Mother when her own Mother wasn't what she wanted. Now, all she could hope for was that the Other Mother was not actually alive. She was sure that she was dead. How could she still be alive? Without the eyes that Coraline was not willing to give her she should have died, right? So, the million dollar question is what happened in the well and is the Other Mother really alive? Coraline hoped not. She did not want to have to defeat her again. She only won because of the sisters downstairs. She wouldn't have been able to beat the Other Mother without the help of the cat. There was no way that Coraline could take her on again. Coraline just wanted to live a normal life. But, now with this note, she would have to beat the Other Mother again.

She idly walked down to the room with the door and saw little mice running around happily squeaking at her. The cat jumped through the window and bit the neck of each of them. He dropped them as they began to turn into ugly rats. "Is she really back?" The cat nodded at her. "Then let's go and stop her." She said. The cat jumped in front of the door and hissed at her. "She isn't in there or you don't want me to go in there?" She asked. The cat nodded. "Which one is it?" She yelled. The cat nodded once more. "She isn't in there?" He nodded again.

"Coraline!"

The cat hissed again and jumped on Coraline's shoulder. Coraline sighed and shoved the key into her pocket.

"Coraline!" The voice called again.

"What?" She spat. She turned her head slowly around to see what the cat was hissing at. Before her stood her mother. "Oh, hi mom." She said happily. "I am out of clean clothes again." She said walking out of the room. Her mother said something quietly and walked out of the room as well. Coraline went back out into the forest. "What has gotten into you? That was not the Other Mother. It was just my mother. Would you please quit digging your claw into my skin?" The cat jumped down and padded beside her. It was well before sunset, but was getting dark anyway. Wybie ran after them.

"Coraline, I have something I need to show you." He said. He held out a doll to her. It was the doll that had once been a little Coraline. It was now a little Wybie. "I found it this morning before I came to find you." Coraline stared at him. She knew how afraid he must be. When she had told him the story about how she almost lost her eyes to the Other Mother he had been terrified then. Now with the doll of him in his hands he must be suppressing a mental break down.

"Wybie, we'll get through this." She promised. "We should go back to my place." She invited. Wybie nodded not trusting himself to speak. Coraline lead the way back to the hotel. As they walked through the door Coraline's mother stomped to meet them. "Mom, can we talk about this later?"

"Fine." He mother shouted and stomped away again. Coraline lead him silently through the place to her boring room.

"Wybie, you'll be fine. Look, I got to keep my eyes." She said pulling her eye lids up. "Just don't go through the door and you'll be fine." She promised. She signaled him to her bed. He quietly sat on the bed beside her and stared down at the doll. Coraline took the doll from him. "This," she waved the doll in front of him, "is how she finds out what is wrong in your life. Then she created her world to be perfect in your eyes. After you love it and want to stay she takes your eyes and you can never come home." Coraline said trying not to frighten him. The little Wybie remained smiling in Coraline's harsh grip. She wanted to burn the doll.

Wybie rose to his feet and began pacing the room with his head bent unnaturally. He paced for a good ten minutes with Coraline simply staring at him. The cat entered the room and watched Wybie with Coraline. Something had to be done. "So, as long as I don't go in to the Other World I'll be fine." He kept repeating as he paced in more circles around her bare room. Wybie was finally having his mental break down. He dropped to the floor and began rambling to Coraline. "You went in and got trapped there. The only reason you made it out was because you outsmarted the Other Mother in a game. If I happened to go sleepwalking and went in there I would love everything I saw and then she would steal my eyes and devour me. And then no one would know what happened, except for you two. I would then die and my soul would be trapped there just like the other three who went there and lost their eyes. She wants my eyes so she can live? As long as I stay away from the door I will be okay. As long as I don't go to the Other World I will live. As long as I get rid of the doll she won't know what is wrong in my life. As long as… As long as… As long as… As long as…" Wybie laid on the ground. "As long as… As long as… Other World… Other Mother… Little me… Spy… Eyes… Buttons… As long as I stay away from the door. Burn the key!" He exclaimed. He jumped to his feet and ran to Coraline. He violently shook her by the shoulders. "Um, where is the key?" He politely asked removing his hands from her.

"Right here." She said taking it out of her pocket. He grabbed it from her and threw it out her open window. "What did you do that for?!" Coraline yelled. This time Wybie did not say anything. He simply walked out the door of her room and out the front door. Coraline watched him walk down the drive way and begin running away. She sighed and pet the cat's arched back.

**Sorry, this chapter is so short. But If I had gone on anymore I would have let out too much more. I had to leave it off with a good cliffhanger. I mean, I do after all want to leave my readers in suspense. And who knows… I might get more than two people on my poll. Watch for the next chapter. Reviews are nice… I love to read them! BxH if you don't review I will smite you! For everyone else it is optional.**


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